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International trade

Data insights

International trade is the backbone of the global economy, facilitating the exchange of goods, services and ideas across borders. It fosters economic growth, enhances productivity and drives innovation. This collection of thematic insights delves into key aspects of international trade, offering a deeper understanding of its diverse components.

Contrasting export performance in first half of 2024 between developing and developed economies

Volume of merchandise exports, 2005=100, seasonally adjusted

UN Trade and Development, UNCTADstat.

This index indicates the change in exports, adjusted for the movement of prices, relative to the base year. Seasonal adjustment is based on X-12-ARIMA.

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World merchandise export volumes, as measured in seasonally adjusted terms, stagnated throughout 2023. The trend reversed in the first quarter of 2024, driven by the strong quarter-on-quarter export performance of developing economies. In the second quarter of 2024, export volumes fell for developed economies (0.9 per cent), while developing economies recorded an increase of 0.7 per cent. 

Data updated on 10 Oct 2024

Food exports have been the most diversified product group over the last decade

Market concentration index of exports

UN Trade and Development, UNCTADstat.

This index measures the extent to which a high proportion of exports is delivered by a small number of economies. It has a value of 1 if all exports originate from a single economy.

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Looking at the geographic distribution of exports by product group, manufactured products have the highest concentration of global supply from a few exporting economies since 2005. In 2023, its market concentration index stood at 0.20. Fuels (0.15) and agricultural raw materials (0.14) ranked second and third, respectively. The index of ores, metals, precious stones and non-monetary gold has averaged 0.13 over the last 19 years. Food is the product group whose exports have been the most diversified over the last decade, showing an index score of 0.12 in 2023.

Data updated on 21 Oct 2024

Western Asia and Northern Africa have the highest export concentration ratio among regions

Product concentration index of exports, 2023

UN Trade and Development, UNCTADstat.

This index measures the extent to which a large share of exports is accounted for by a small number of product groups. The index has a value of 1 when an economy exports only one group of products and a value of 0 if all product groups are equally represented.

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In 2023, the region with the most diversified exports over products was Europe, as indicated by a product concentration index of exports of 0.07, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (0.10). Western Asia and Northern Africa (0.28) was the region in which exports were most concentrated on few products. Several Sub-Saharan African economies strongly engaged in the export of natural resources, such as Mali (0.82), Angola (0.80), Botswana (0.80), Burkina Faso (0.78), and South Sudan (0.77), were among the top fifteen with reference to the index. Tokelau (0.90) and Iraq (0.88) ranked highest.

Data updated on 21 Oct 2024

Metadata

This insight presents different indices that can be used to analyze trade flows and trade patterns over time from the perspective of, for example, relative competitiveness, structure of global exports and imports markets, or the importance of trade for the economy, both for individual economies and for groups of economies. 

Further guidance on their interpretation can be obtained from “Indicators Explained”.

Full metadata are available in our Data Centre for:

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